Warnings have been sounded about the new draft master fixture plan, and how it will impact upon club football and hurling.
ews that the new system planned for 2021 will include provincial and All-Ireland series for clubs has gained favour with Down club Kilcoo, who were denied the opportunity of defending their 2019 Ulster title last year due to the pandemic squeezing the club season.
However, the 13-week club Championship window will mean that many counties either wait until the weekend of July 24/25 to commence any action, or else run off domestic club leagues without their county players.
"I think it's very hard to tell if it is a fair deal or not yet," said Kilcoo coach, Conleith Gilligan.
"I think last year, when it was a completely split season, it worked really well. Club players got their time and they knew exactly when they were going to be playing.
"And then the counties had their players and they knew when they were going to be playing. There was no interference and I think it worked well for everybody."
Gilligan would imagine that Down might go the same way as his native county, Derry. The Oak Leafers are planning on running off a league, commencing April, but any relegation and promotion issues will be determined by Championship performances when all clubs have their full complement of players.
"I'd say there has to be a provision for a wee bit of football early on. More recreational or regional football that doesn't have the same stresses or strains of promotion and relegation," says Gilligan.
"But there has to be something in place for players because it would be a very long period if you went out of the Championship at the first round and your year is over and no football until next year."
He does acknowledge that the concept of a split season was something that was stumbled upon by necessity through the Coronavirus pandemic, and this falls some way short of a repeat.
"It won't be as defined as last year. But the way the window seems to be, once the serious football in terms of Championship will start whenever your county goes out of their Championship," Gilligan points out.
"You are planning and looking at how you think the county in which you are involved in will do. For teams that have a lot of county players involved, it is going to be very hard to play games without them. They probably need to make provision on that. That it could be weighted in some way as some teams are adversely affected and can't field as easily without them."
Kilcoo won their eighth Championship in nine years in 2020, but were unable to launch a defence of the Ulster club title. This scenario was already well established before action resumed, but it left a slight anti-climax to their season nonetheless.
"For any club that wins their Championship, getting into a provincial series was always a massive, massive prize. I always felt, whether it be Ballinderry or Kilcoo, that it was in the Ulster club where you were really testing yourself," says Gilligan.
"It was the premier competition. Nobody has a stranglehold of it, maybe Crossmaglen had for a time and Burren before them, but there are always a lot of new winners, year-in, year-out.
"You could never predict who was going to be the Ulster club champions whereas in other provinces, it was a bit more predictable.
"So for me, the Ulster club was always the best competition. The time of the year, there were no other distractions, you would always get loads of coverage and a competition that players really loved to play in.
"It's always when you win a county Championship that there was that disappointment. Before that, you didn't know if you could win the Championship or not, so it wasn't a factor in your thinking.
"But I suppose from the outset, everybody knew that the Championship would be the finish of it. Michael McShane (Slaughtneil hurling manager) had an interview in a few papers asking to get it on, but I never thought it was going to happen.
"There was not a window for it, nor an appetite among the powers that be. They probably could have run it, but with a pandemic raging so heavy at that time, especially around club celebrations at that time, I can understand why authorities were not in favour. It was going to be very hard to keep people away and very difficult to marshal it.
"Hopefully, everything settles now coming to the end of the next year and they can have the provincial Championships.
"The likes of Dungannon, new winners, I am sure would have loved to have experienced it for themselves."
Kilcoo's management has had a slight tweak. Coach Paul Devlin has departed, but in his place comes the former Donegal coach, Richie Thornton.
And while they have been on the road together for a long time, Gilligan says there are no retirements from the Kilcoo set-up.
"I suppose a shorter season does help the older player, especially the player who has more work commitments and more family commitments. There is just this window that they have to commit for.
"This year, Richie Thornton is in on the management team so he will bring some freshness. He brings massive experience from what he done with the Donegal senior team and St Eunan's in Letterkenny. It will give a boost for preparation for the year ahead."
